KATY – At the time in his life when Josh Hamilton most needed a friend and a supporter, after a step back on his lifelong path to sobriety, he found one in a man who was his on-field enemy for seven memorable games just this fall.

He found thousands in an adoring crowd at the Merrell Center.

The Texas Rangers great spent his first hours after a very public apology to a very public failure in the needed company of friends, including St. Louis Cardinals All-Star Lance Berkman, who made a surprise appearance to introduce Hamilton to an adoring crowd of Christian men at a KSBJ-FM event.

“There are challenges and there are pitfalls and you can’t do it alone,” said Berkman, who helped defeat Hamilton’s Rangers in the World Series. “So as Christian men, we need each other and when there’s a brother who is facing a challenge and a difficult situation, we need to be there to come alongside and say ‘I don’t care what you’ve done; I love you and I’m with you and I want to support you.'”

The packed house gave Hamilton a rousing ovation after hearing of his finding a relationship with God, his journey to a clean lifestyle and his failure to keep that commitment this week when he was drinking at a Dallas bar on Monday.

Just hours earlier, Hamilton stepped in front of cameras in Arlington to apologize for his use of alcohol – “three or four drinks,” he admitted in a single statement with no questions. Things were much lighter on stage in Katy as they tend to be when Berkman is around, and fittingly the affable ex-Astro teased Hamilton over how close the Rangers got to defeating the Cardinals, took credit for saving Houston the horrors of a Rangers championship and stole the show with stories of the Astros’ 2005 pennant – clearly putting Hamilton much more at ease than in his televised statement.

Hamilton said Friday night that he pondered canceling the Katy appearance, which had long been scheduled but wanted to keep his commitment.

“I could not be a man and not stand up and admit what I did was wrong and doesn’t work for me … or I could hide in shame, but I didn’t want to do that,” Hamilton said. “I handled what I had to handle today. Being a man of God and standing up. People are going to call me a hypocrite, but I’m just a sinful man.”

This is Hamilton’s second known alcohol-related relapse in three years after finally getting his life and career on track following years of alcohol and other substance abuse.

In January 2009, he drank in excess in a bar in Tempe, Ariz. He apologized for that a few months later when a dozen or so pictures were posted online showing Hamilton taking shots off the bar, and dancing and hugging several young women. He said then that he had been sober since October 2005.

Hamilton and general manager Jon Daniels said the outfielder will meet soon with Major League Baseball doctors and counselors in New York for an evaluation in his continued recovery. He had been traveling with an “accountability partner,” and his previous partner Johnny Narron left to take the hitting coach job in Milwaukee and has not been replaced, though he would not have likely been with Hamilton in the offseason when he was with family.

“You all know how hard I play on the field and I give it everything I absolutely have,” Hamilton said. “When I don’t do that off the field, I leave myself open for a weak moment.”

After having a few drinks with dinner, Hamilton called Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler to come hang out with him.

Hamilton said Kinsler didn’t know he had been drinking, and that he never had a drink in front of his teammate, even when they left before the restaurant closed and went to another place nearby for 25-30 minutes. Then Kinsler drove him back to where he was staying not far away.

Though Hamilton told Kinsler he was not going anywhere else, Hamilton said he later returned to the place they had left and had more drinks.

In light of the relapse, the Rangers and Hamilton have mutually tabled talks of a new contract as Hamilton is due to be a free agent after this season.

Both cited more important issues in what for most would be the private life but has been brought to the forefront because of past struggles of the very public figure.